Resilient by Solution Tree

A Framework for Student Wellness Education in a PLC at Work®

Laurie Feinzimer

Troy Gobble

Mark Onuscheck

Anthony R. Reibel

Eric Twadell

A

Framework for Student Wellness Education in a PLC at Work®

Laurie Feinzimer

Troy Gobble

Mark Onuscheck

Anthony R. Reibel

Eric Twadell

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Acknowledgments

To my husband, Ben, and our children, Morgan, Nathan, and Maya, thank you for your laughter, unwavering support, and love. You have shaped the mother, wife, and person I am today, and in turn, the educator I strive to be. Your presence grounds my belief in the importance of seeing and supporting every child.

To Troy Gobble, Mark Onuscheck, Anthony R. Reibel, and Eric Twadell, thank you for being wise guides, thought partners, and champions throughout my journey as an educator and leader. Your insight and encouragement have been invaluable.

To the incredible team at Solution Tree, thank you for believing in this work and for your commitment to advancing bold, student-centered ideas that truly make a difference in the lives of all children.

—Laurie Feinzimer

Solution Tree Press would like to thank the following reviewers:

Tonya Alexander English Teacher

Owego Free Academy Owego, New York

Teresa Kinley Humanities Teacher Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Rachel Swearengin Fifth-Grade Teacher

Manchester Park Elementary Lenexa, Kansas

Visit go.SolutionTree.com/PLCbooks to download the free reproducibles in this book

About the Authors

Laurie Feinzimer, PhD, is the director of student wellness initiatives at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois, where she collaborates with academic divisions and teacher teams to integrate well-being and emotional learning into instructional practices. She also leads organization-wide wellness initiatives and leverages data analytics to enhance Stevenson’s culture of wellness and belonging.

Previously, Laurie taught social studies and Advanced Placement psychology at Stevenson for over twenty years. She has spoken at numerous national social studies and psychology conferences and remains an active member of professional organizations, including ASCD, Learning Forward, the American Psychological Association, the National Council for the Social Studies, and CHI-TOPSS. She also serves as a board member for the Camp Thunderbird Charitable Foundation.

Her research includes National Comprehensive School Reform: An Analysis of Six Reform Models 1980–2000 (2009), and she holds multiple professional certifications, including a Professional Educator’s License with endorsements in general administration, history, psychology, and world history. She is also certified in Mental Health First Aid and is a facilitator for Resilience in Schools and Educators (RISE).

Laurie earned her doctorate in educational leadership and policy studies from Loyola University Chicago, her master’s degree from DePaul University, and her bachelor’s degree in liberal arts and sciences from the University of Michigan.

Troy Gobble, MS, is the principal of Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois. He previously served as assistant principal for teaching and learning at Stevenson. Troy taught science for eighteen years and served as the science department chair at Riverside Brookfield High School in Riverside, Illinois, for eight years.

The U.S. Department of Education has described Stevenson as “the most recognized and celebrated school in America”; it is one of only eight schools to have won the U.S. Department of Education’s

National Blue Ribbon School Award on five occasions. Stevenson was one of the first comprehensive schools that the U.S. Department of Education designated a New American High School as a model of successful school reform. It is repeatedly cited as one of America’s top high schools and the birthplace of the Professional Learning Communities at Work® (PLC at Work®) process.

Troy holds a master of science in educational administration from Benedictine University, a master of science in natural sciences (physics) from Eastern Illinois University, and a bachelor of science in secondary science education from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Mark Onuscheck, MEd, is the director of curriculum, instruction, and assessment at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois. He is a former English teacher and director of communication arts. As director of curriculum, instruction, and assessment, Mark works with academic divisions around professional learning, articulation, curricular and instructional revision, evaluation, assessment, social-emotional learning, technologies, and Common Core implementation. He is also an adjunct professor at DePaul University.

Mark was awarded the Quality Matters Star Rating for his work in online teaching. He helps build curriculum and instructional practices for TimeLine Theatre’s arts integration program for Chicago Public Schools. Additionally, he is a National Endowment for the Humanities’ grant recipient and a member of ASCD, the National Council of Teachers of English, the International Literacy Association, and Learning Forward.

Mark earned a bachelor’s degree in English and classical studies from Allegheny College and a master’s degree in teaching English from the University of Pittsburgh.

Anthony R. Reibel, EdD, is the director of research and evaluation at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois. In 2006, he became a Spanish teacher at Stevenson, where he served as a curricular team leader, core team leader, coach, and club sponsor.

In 2010, Anthony received recognition from the state of Illinois, and in 2011, Illinois Computing Educators named him Technology Educator of the Year. He currently sponsors two clubs: (1) Kiva, which gives microloans to entrepreneurs living in areas lacking financial institutions, and (2) FIRE, which promotes equality and respect among Stevenson students and staff through conversation and advocacy in school and throughout the community.

Anthony is the author and coauthor of seven books on education. Some titles include Embracing Relational Teaching: How Strong Relationships Promote Student Self-Regulation and Efficacy; Small Changes, Big Impact: Ten Strategies to Promote Student Efficacy and Lifelong Learning; Proficiency-Based Assessment: Process, Not Product ; and Pathways to Proficiency: Implementing Evidence-Based Grading. Each of these explores the relationship among student efficacy, pedagogy, and learning.

Anthony is also the publisher and chief editor of The Assessor (www.assessormag.com), a publication that features short articles written by teachers and administrators to support conversation about formative assessment.

Anthony completed his doctorate, which studied the effects of cognitive bias on teachers’ evaluation of student performance, at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Eric Twadell, PhD , is the superintendent of Adlai E. Stevenson High School District 125 in Lincolnshire, Illinois. Prior to his role as superintendent, Eric served Stevenson as a social studies teacher, curriculum director, and assistant superintendent for leadership and organizational development.

Stevenson High School has received five National Blue Ribbon School Awards from the U.S. Department of Education and is one of only eight schools to have won this award on five different occasions. Stevenson was also one of the first comprehensive schools that the U.S. Department of Education designated a New American High School as a model of successful school reform. The U.S. Department of Education has described Stevenson as “the most recognized and celebrated school in America.” In the popular press, Stevenson High School has been repeatedly cited as one of America’s top high schools and the birthplace of Professional Learning Communities at Work.

In addition to his work as a teacher and leader, Eric has been involved in coaching numerous athletic teams and facilitating outdoor education and adventure travel programs. He is a member of many professional organizations, including Learning Forward and ASCD.

Eric earned a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction and a doctorate in educational leadership and policy studies from Loyola University Chicago.

To book Laurie Feinzimer, Troy Gobble, Mark Onuscheck, Anthony R. Reibel, or Eric Twadell for professional development, contact pd@SolutionTree.com.

i ntroduction

Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.

—JOHN DEWEY

As educational reformer John Dewey (1893) famously stated, “Cease conceiving of education as mere preparation for later life, and make it the full meaning of the present life” (p. 660). Dewey viewed education as a continuous process of growth and development, not merely preparation for future tasks. Similarly, Halbert L. Dunn (1959), often referred to as the “father of the wellness movement” (National Wellness Alliance, n.d.), defined wellness as “an integrated method of functioning which is oriented toward maximizing the potential of which the individual is capable within the environment where [they are] functioning” (p. 447). As education and scientific understanding have evolved, it has become clear that education and wellness are deeply interconnected. Research by Anna Zajacova and Elizabeth M. Lawrence (2018) highlights that as socioeconomic inequalities grow, health disparities also widen, with the greatest benefits of wellness seen among those with high levels of education.

This understanding inspired us as we developed our wellness education framework featured in this book that promotes both academic and personal well-being. It recognizes that a healthy mind and body are essential for effective learning and overall life success. However, success in schools today is typically measured by academic success. Standardized test scores, grade point averages, and college enrollment and readiness data are often used to rank schools and measure school achievement (Niche, n.d.). However, schools have a responsibility to be about much more than academics; academics alone do not help students succeed. Supporting students’ emotional and physical health is imperative if we want them to thrive.

The human brain is hardwired in such a way that learning is linked to people’s social and emotional connections with one another. Learning fundamentally relies on human interaction (Price, 2016). In 2023, four in ten high school students felt persistently sad or hopeless, and two in ten students seriously considered attempting suicide (Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention [CDC], 2024). Students who lack social-emotional well-being and connections are likely to experience academic difficulties (Price, 2016). Schools have a duty to support all students, especially those who are struggling with social and emotional connections.

When students are elementary aged, a school’s desire and effort to support them with their social-emotional growth are far more apparent. The schedule and setup in most elementary schools allow one adult to establish and maintain a relationship with a student throughout the entire school day. The purpose of this is to provide opportunities for more personal connections to form. Students are more likely to engage and succeed in their learning if they are in a safe and nurturing environment. According to the American Psychological Association, “Among kindergarteners, students reported liking school more and experiencing less loneliness if they had a close relationship with their teachers. . . . Kindergarteners with better teacher-student relationships showed better performance on measures of early academic skills” (Rimm-Kaufman & Sandilos, 2015). Students are able to build these formative relationships in elementary school in part because of their numerous opportunities for agency and self-expression in the classroom; for example, they can choose where they want to engage in their learning, whether it be at their desk, in the reading corner, or on the rug, among other options. This freedom of expression creates an opportunity for educators to talk with individual students about their unique desires and understand each student on a more personal level.

Interestingly, students’ awareness of their need for agency and self-expression grows and deepens as they age, reflecting their increasing desire to have a voice and actively shape their experiences. However, their opportunities for agency and personhood decrease as their schooling continues (Cohen, 2022; Eccles, Lord, & Midgley, 1991). In other words, while students continue to need these chances to thrive, schools typically offer fewer and fewer of these opportunities in the middle and upper grades.

Thriving and Resilience

One definition of thrive is to “grow vigorously” or “flourish” (Thrive, n.d.). People cannot thrive without prioritizing their physical, emotional, and mental well-being; they need to develop resilience to thrive. According to the American Psychological Association (n.d.), resilience is “the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands.” We know that cognitive wellness alone will not enable people to flourish. Among the many educational commitments and changes introduced in schools, a focus on students’ physical and emotional capacity has emerged as a priority.

While public education in the United States began in 1635, it took until the 1900s for physical education to enter the public school conversation, and even later for it to actually enter public education (National Geographic Society, 2023). A focus on social and emotional health did not enter the conversation until 1994, and the first guideline for U.S. educators to promote social and emotional learning was not created until 1997 (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning [CASEL], 2020b).

We know that when students’ brains are not supported mentally, socially, and emotionally, both cognitive and physical functioning decrease. Lack of physical activity, social isolation, insufficient sleep, chronic stress, and poor nutrition can all contribute to poor brain function (Solan, 2022). For a range of reasons—from helping to establish basic selfmanagement skills to supporting confident identity development, to rectifying the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic—school communities and teachers are starting to fully embrace a common commitment to the overall well-being of their students. In doing so, they’ve come to recognize the value of incorporating wellness skills to support students’ social, cognitive, physical, and emotional skills as well as their academic development.

Cognitive Control in a Collaborative Culture

On a typical October night in Deerfield, Illinois, Laurie’s brother, Jon, and his buddy decided to play paddle tennis at a local club. Ultimately, however, this night turned out to be anything but typical. One of Jon’s opponents, Steve, suddenly collapsed on the court, suffering cardiac arrest.

When someone experiences a heart attack, CPR should start immediately. Every minute counts. Dozens of people were at that club, but only a few were able to remain focused and take action in that situation. Jon quickly dropped his paddle, ran across the court, yelled for someone to call an ambulance, and started doing compressions. The goal at this point? Survival. Fortunately for Steve, Jon thrived in this situation. He did not know whether he would succeed. He had not been in this exact situation before, yet he was able to engage in the academic skills he remembered from a CPR training to keep Steve’s blood oxygenated. Steve was taken to NorthShore Highland Park Hospital, where doctors inserted a stent into his circumflex artery. The following week, he was able to return home and resume his role as a mathematics teacher at a nearby high school. As Steve stated, “My recovery is a testament to Jon” (Borcia, 2023).

What enables some people to recognize the immediate need for action and to take action while others don’t recognize it or act on it? Cognitive control, or the ability to process information in flexible and adaptive ways from moment to moment, has a huge impact on human behavior and success in any given situation. Our goal as educators is to ensure every student learns the skills they need to develop cognitive control such that they flourish regardless of what challenges life presents to them.

Improving the brain’s cognitive control is linked not only to cognitive success but to physical and emotional success as well. We define student wellness as a focus on physical, emotional, and cognitive wellness. Physical wellness embodies elements such as sleep, nutrition, and regular physical activity. Emotional wellness includes the capacity to handle stressful life situations and the ability to adapt and change over time. Cognitive wellness allows one to easily engage in new experiences and process and acquire knowledge. This book uses a

wellness framework to incorporate these various types of wellness into successful learning for students.

In the book Make It Stick, Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger, and Mark A. McDaniel (2014) discuss the importance of successful learning. They astutely discuss three aspects of learning that they believe everyone can agree on:

First, to be useful, learning requires memory, so what we’ve learned is still there later when we need it. Second, we need to keep learning and remembering all our lives. . . . Third, learning is an acquired skill, and the most effective strategies are often counterintuitive. (p. 2)

While we agree with all these statements, we believe something is missing—something huge: cognitive control.

Make It Stick tells the story of pilot Matt Brown, whose plane experienced a drop in oil pressure, which meant he could no longer rely on the plane’s autopilot; he needed to rely solely on his manual ability to safely land the plane (Brown et al., 2014). And he did. Kevin Hiatt, a former Delta Airlines pilot, notes, “The automation in the aircraft, whether it’s a Boeing or an Airbus, has lulled us into a sense of security and safety” (Nicas & Wichter, 2019). In a U.S. study by a federal task force, it was discovered that in 60 percent of fortysix plane accidents that took place from 2001 to 2011, pilots had trouble either manually flying the plane or handling the automated controls (CBS News, 2011). These accidents were found to result from a lack of manual training skills. Manual training skills, or effortful learning, allow the human brain the time to practice the skills necessary to fly a plane and to recognize and balance the emotional and physical challenges of the brain and body that occur while utilizing those skills. So although Matt was not the only pilot to have been in a sticky situation that required leaning on instincts and effortful learning, he was one of the few who were able to emerge from the situation and thrive.

What allowed both Jon and Matt to stand apart from other people amid emergencies was that they had not only the right skills to act but also (and just as importantly) the cognitive control to engage accurately and efficiently.

Wellness: Not Just “One More Thing” to Teach

When wellness and emotional intelligence skills are taught in schools, they are most often an addition to the school day or a “canned curriculum” within an advisory period, a physical education course, or a homeroom class. This is because educators—rightfully—argue that they have too much on their plate already. The framework we present in this book challenges that approach to wellness. While discussing wellness in an advisory or homeroom classroom is valuable and necessary, the most impactful learning takes place when students are able to directly apply their knowledge. Wellness is not just one more thing on the plate—wellness is the plate.

In their book The Recipe for Student Well-Being, Brian H. Smith, Clayton R. Cook, and Aria E. Fiat (2024) argue that infusing social-emotional learning (SEL) instruction into teachers’ everyday practice rather than delivering prepared SEL lessons is unrealistic. Our academic teams at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois, have proven this is incorrect. When schools foster a collaborative culture centered on wellness, integrating social-emotional competencies into the curriculum becomes a benefit for both students and teachers, rather than a burden. Through data-driven research, the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL, 2020b) has proven that social-emotional learning is a skill that can be taught. CASEL explicitly focuses on five core competencies.

1. Self-awareness

2. Self-management

3. Social awareness

4. Relationship skills

5. Responsible decision making

As educational psychologist Albert Bandura (1977) states, “Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do” (p. 22). While the ultimate goal is to have students achieve emotional wellness on their own, social-emotional learning requires constant interaction and observation of others; therefore, it is imperative that this learning happen throughout the entire day. Why, then, are so many adults, parents, and educators resistant to include SEL in addition to academic learning?

While they can agree that self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision making, social awareness, and relationship skills are important for students to have and understand, many teachers feel unprepared as to how to explicitly teach them (Walker, 2023). We would argue that these competencies are most effectively taught and remembered during effortful learning. For example, educators often discuss the importance of group projects in classroom settings, but simply putting students in groups does not mean they understand how to engage in relationships and make responsible decisions when individuals in those groups do not always agree. When teachers clearly and effectively teach the skills necessary for group collaboration, students are more likely to remember and apply those skills, recognizing their importance to the success of the project. In this guide for teacher teams, we will show educators how to embed wellness skills directly into the curriculum.

Hundreds of studies demonstrate that attention to students’ self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision making, social awareness, and relationships skills has a direct positive impact on their academic performance (Durlak et al., 2011). Perhaps even more significant is the direct correlation between one’s emotional intelligence and their future success. As emotional intelligence specialist Jason Joyce (2022) mentions in his presentation “EQ and You: An Introduction to Emotional Intelligence for Professionals,” a forty-year study of PhDs at University of California, Berkeley found that EQ (or emotional intelligence) is four times more powerful than IQ in predicting success. Companies worldwide have adjusted their hiring protocols to use emotional intelligence as a screening tool for future

employment (ACAP University College, n.d.). The aim of education is to equip students for life beyond school, with a focus on preparing them for prospective jobs. The wellness education framework we present in this book explicitly prepares students for just that— their future beyond school.

A Wellness Framework for Student Support

Our student wellness framework provides the ability to ensure that these opportunities to engage in agency and personhood happen throughout every classroom and learning space. Until now, educators have lacked a framework that provides efficacy in this work. Many frameworks miss the critical inclusion of two areas: (1) student voice, providing opportunities for agency and autonomy, and (2) adult capacity, preparing educators with the skills and dispositions to support the whole child. In addition, the frameworks don’t work as continuous cycles. This is critical for sustainability. Professional Learning Communities at Work® (PLC at Work®) provides the process for this continuous cycle of improvement (DuFour et al., 2024). The wellness education framework this book presents leverages PLC at Work practices, including collaboration and ongoing professional learning, to ensure students have personal wellness success in addition to academic success.

About This Book

Today’s students feel unparalleled pressure to achieve. However, achievement alone does not equate to success and happiness. Feeling successful and happy is crucial for personal growth and preparation for life after school. When students experience a sense of achievement and contentment beyond academics, they develop confidence and resilience, which are essential for tackling future challenges. Without these positive social and emotional abilities, students may struggle with motivation and self-worth, hindering their ability to learn, adapt, and find employment in the future. This book will serve as a tool for leaders in education to promote students’ well-being and set up students for academic achievement as well as emotional, physical, and cognitive wellness beyond their school years.

At Adlai E. Stevenson High School, we have integrated student wellness into the work we do for every student, in every classroom, and throughout our school. We’ve had failures and successes, momentum and delays, and innovations and confusions in this work, and we are still learning. We wrote this book to retrace some of our experiences of prioritizing learning about wellness and integrating the wellness education framework at our high school. We wrote it to share the research we’ve used to help us implement wellness practices. We wrote it to explain how we’ve built collaborative discussions among our academic teams to support the specific wellness needs of students, and we wrote it to explore some insights we’ve gained as we continue to improve our efforts. In doing so, we constantly come back to our most basic core beliefs, the three big ideas of a PLC: (1) a focus

on learning, (2) a collaborative culture and collective responsibility, and (3) a results orientation (DuFour et al., 2024). These core beliefs continue to guide our curriculum; our instructional practices; and our assessment of students’ physical, emotional, and cognitive growth. Likewise, they continue to support our PLC’s mission: “success for every student.” Our attention to students’ wellness is critical to that mission. We hope you will make wellness critical to your school’s mission, too.

Our core PLC beliefs in learning, collaboration and collective responsibility, and results are what helped guide the creation of our student wellness framework. The framework consists of six nonlinear components.

1. Examine Student Voice

2. Build Educator Capacity

3. Design an Integrated Wellness Curriculum

4. Provide Feedback and Assessment

5. Analyze and Reflect

6. Amplify and Expand

This book is designed to promote leadership and team collaboration specific to the physical, emotional, and academic needs of students and educators so that schools ensure all students develop the wellness skills necessary to support success from kindergarten to twelfth grade and beyond. Each chapter has a specific focus, so teams can jump in and start depending on where they are on their wellness education journey.

• Chapter 1, “Create a Culture of Wellness,” addresses the importance of understanding and creating a PLC. To define student wellness within the context of a PLC culture requires a foundational understanding of the three big ideas and the four critical questions of a PLC (DuFour et al., 2024). The PLC culture will provide schools with the right formula to embed wellness core competencies schoolwide and provide every student with the chance to embody true wellness.

• Chapter 2, “Examine Student Voice,” presents a foundational wellness program that highlights the significance of student voice and explores the link between physical and emotional well-being and academic success. Students who feel a sense of belonging are more likely to remain both physically and mentally engaged in school. This chapter presents student voice as an opportunity to impact wellness that should exist not only in surveys but also in curriculum, feedback, assessment, and personal reflection.

• Chapter 3, “Build Educator Capacity,” emphasizes the necessity of supporting educator learning on the topic of wellness. Building adult capacity in this area is vital, as many teacher programs focus little to no time on students’ social, emotional, and physical development and its connection to learning. This chapter focuses on what educator capacity is and how it is built within schoolwide professional learning opportunities. In addition, the

chapter discusses how educator capacity should exist within collaborative teams in regard to feedback, assessment, and adult personal reflections.

• Chapter 4, “Design an Integrated Wellness Curriculum,” highlights the specifics of advancing and fully integrating wellness into your school curriculum. It emphasizes how wellness integration increases academic performance, reduces problem behavior, and boosts student engagement in classrooms. This chapter explains how to design an integrated curriculum that explicitly teaches emotional and physical learning skills throughout academic content. Specific tools and examples provide guidance for administrators and educators to successfully embrace this process by identifying and incorporating the essential skills. The chapter shares teacher and student examples of how developing scaled learning targets and success criteria helps create a shift in mindset about academic curriculum across the school building.

• Chapter 5, “Provide Feedback and Assessment,” shares what goal creation, instruction, and assessment can look like in a school with a fully integrated wellness curriculum. It answers questions such as, “How will we know if each student has learned what we expect them to learn?” It also discusses the importance of understanding how assessments may greatly differ in monitoring wellness, and how they differ from the traditional definitions. Finally, it addresses the importance of feedback, specifically explicit and timely feedback, in relation to skill development, student success, and course content. Specific tools for teachers and students are included to help guide this work.

• Chapter 6, “Analyze and Reflect,” emphasizes the importance of taking action when some students are not learning what teachers expect them to learn. It calls attention to the climate of perfectionism that has been building since the 1980s. It discusses the need to reimagine what student success is and how it can and should be measured. We share examples of how we evaluate the effectiveness of our wellness practices and their schoolwide impact.

• Chapter 7, “Amplify and Expand,” focuses on the continuous need for improvement. Success for every student requires continually amplifying and expanding on any school-improvement goal. This chapter answers questions about how schools should extend learning for students who are meeting proficiency and accelerate learning for students who are being left behind. We share examples of how teachers and students are able to respond when they have not met success criteria. Finally, the chapter addresses the need to continue to amplify and expand adult learning in tandem with student learning.

Each chapter ends with a Last Word section, which offers a brief summary, and a "Diving In" reproducible, which introduces actionable steps, tools, and reproducible materials that educators can use immediately.

This book is designed to support administrators, school leaders, curriculum coordinators, instructional coaches, and other educational leaders in instructional and school-improvement efforts, providing all the necessary resources for teacher teams to implement the framework. While the examples in this book come from our experiences with development and implementation of the framework at Adlai E. Stevenson High School, leaders and educators in elementary and middle schools will be able to use the framework as well by adapting the tools to younger students’ needs.

Administrators, counselors, instructional coaches, or any members of a team in a PLC can use this book to foster effective collaboration and drive collective progress toward student and educator well-being. Remember, without an intentional focus on well-being, students will end up in one of two places: (1) some simply will not become resilient and thrive, and (2) others may thrive despite the circumstances we provide. Let’s get started and make sure all students thrive because of the circumstances we provide for them.

CHAPTER 1

Create a Culture of Wellness

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and no t merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

—WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION

Steven struggled tremendously in school. He had undiagnosed dyslexia and regularly earned Cs. His lack of school success impacted his well-being. He regularly missed school and ultimately was rejected by many of his top college choices (McBride, 2010). At the time, many viewed Steven as unable to succeed. Fortunately, his mother did not feel that way. With her support, Steven ultimately completed a degree from California State University, Long Beach.

This is the story of Steven Spielberg, one of the most lauded movie directors of the 20th and 21st centuries, having been nominated for nine Academy Awards for Best Director and won twice (Kennedy Center, n.d.). It raises some questions: What if Steven’s mother had not been as supportive as she was? What if Steven had not had the privilege and access to filmmaking that he did? Do we, as educators, view Steven’s school experiences as successful or unsuccessful? How do we, in fact, measure success in school? Do we have a responsibility to think about how a student’s school experience impacts their well-being and future success? We argue yes.

Defining Student Wellness

For our purposes, we define student wellness by what we consider the multiple forces of wellness: The collective importance of students’ emotional, cognitive, and physical wellness is impacted by the collective importance of their individual, school, and home wellness. What do these forces mean?

• Emotional wellness is the ability to understand, manage, and express one’s emotions in a healthy and constructive manner. It involves emotional stability, resilience in the face of challenges, and maintenance of a positive outlook. This wellness includes being self-aware; recognizing and accepting one’s feelings, strengths, and weaknesses; and fostering positive relationships through effective communication and empathy. Achieving emotional wellness requires a balanced approach to life, where schoolwork, cocurricular activities, personal time, and relationships are equally prioritized. It also requires self-care to maintain mental and emotional health and to find purpose and fulfillment through meaningful goals and activities.

• Cognitive wellness is the ability to think clearly, learn, and remember effectively, which supports students in processing information, solving problems, and making decisions efficiently. It includes the development of critical thinking skills, creativity, and the capacity for complex thought processes as well as the ability to focus, maintain attention, and manage thought-provoking challenges without becoming overwhelmed.

• Physical wellness is the ability to maintain a healthy body. It involves the willingness to engage in behaviors that contribute to optimal physical functioning and health, including regular exercise to build strength, endurance, and flexibility. Physical wellness also includes making healthy dietary choices that provide the necessary nutrients and avoiding harmful habits. It requires a balanced lifestyle that incorporates sufficient sleep and effective stress management.

• Individual wellness is the ability to experience happiness and life satisfaction by ensuring that one’s basic needs are fulfilled and actively contributing to the communities that one is part of. Individual wellness requires a balanced approach to physical health, emotional stability, cognitive clarity, and social interaction.

• Residential wellness is the ability to create and maintain a living environment that promotes the health, safety, and well-being of the occupants. It involves ensuring that homes are physically safe, clean, and comfortable. Residential wellness includes the availability of essential needs and resources such as clean water, food, reliable electricity, and efficient waste management. It also includes fostering a sense of community and belonging among residents, providing opportunities for social interaction and support.

• School wellness is the ability to create and sustain an educational environment that is equitable and just for all. It includes the creation and support of a healthy and nurturing educational environment that promotes the physical, emotional, social, and cognitive well-being of students, faculty, staff, and the wider school community. It involves implementing policies and practices that ensure a safe, inclusive atmosphere where students feel valued and supported. School wellness includes providing access to nutritious meals, encouraging regular physical activity, and offering health education programs that teach students about making and maintaining healthy choices in their lives. The leaders and staff at Stevenson High School know that achieving school wellness requires collaboration among educators, parents, and community members to create a comprehensive system that supports the academic success and the overall well-being of every student.

Student wellness is at its peak when all these forces of wellness are at their individual peaks as well. Unfortunately, not all students’ wellness forces function at their highest levels simultaneously or consistently. Recognizing that students don’t live in an ideal world, schools play a critical role in providing stability, fostering resilience, and addressing disparities to ensure every student has access to the wellness supports they need to thrive. Highly functioning teams within a PLC can successfully ensure and support equitable wellness for all students.

The Five Core Competencies of Student Wellness

For the purposes of this book and for the implementation of our student wellness framework, we use the five CASEL (2020a) core competencies of student wellness to navigate our work.

1. Self-awareness: Understanding one’s own emotions, values, strengths, and limitations

2. Self-management: Regulating emotions, thoughts, and behaviors in different situations; managing stress; and setting goals

3. Social awareness: Empathizing with others, understanding social norms, and recognizing resources and supports

4. Relationship skills: Establishing and maintaining healthy relationships, communicating clearly, and resolving conflicts

5. Responsible decision making: Making ethical, constructive choices about personal and social behavior

We expand on these competencies throughout this book in relation to specific curriculum integration elements.

The Student Wellness Education Framework

The Student Wellness Education Framework offers educators a clear and sustainable approach for prioritizing all aspects of student wellness, leveraging the principles of a PLC. The six components of the framework are nonlinear. Educators do not need to follow a fixed sequence; instead, they can enter the work at any point, revisit components as needed, and adapt the approach based on student needs, school context, and team priorities.

1. Examine Student Voice: Recognize the importance of students’ perspectives as their reality. Collect and utilize that information to increase student engagement and success.

2. Build Educator Capacity: Provide professional development, resources, and time to prepare adults to allow for deeper understanding of students’ social, emotional, physical, and cognitive needs.

3. Design an Integrated Wellness Curriculum: Design an integrated curriculum that explicitly teaches social-emotional competencies throughout the content areas and the entire school.

4. Provide Feedback and Assessment: Determine the area of growth for focus as a collaborative team, the goal to achieve, and how success will be evaluated.

5. Analyze and Reflect: Assess and reflect on the results as they relate to student growth and success.

6. Amplify and Expand: Accelerate the positive impacts and improve on the challenges.

Figure 1.1 shows the six components of the framework and how they fit within PLC at Work’s three big ideas and four critical questions.

Before we detail the components of the framework in the remaining chapters, we’ll discuss how the framework fits within a PLC.

LEARNING

Examine Student Voice

Recognize the importance of students’ perspectives as their reality. Collect and utilize that information to increase student engagement and success.

Design an Integrated Wellness Curriculum

Design an integrated curriculum that explicitly teaches socialemotional competencies throughout the content areas and the entire school.

• What do we want our students to know and be able to do?

COLLABORATION AND COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY

Build Educator Capacity

Provide professional development, resources, and time to prepare adults to allow for deeper understanding of students’ social, emotional, physical, and cognitive needs.

Provide Feedback and Assessment

Determine the area of growth for focus as a collaborative team, the goal to achieve, and how success will be evaluated.

• How will we know if each student has learned it?

RESULTS

Analyze and Reflect

Analyze and reflect on the results as they relate to student growth and success.

Amplify and Expand

Accelerate the positive impacts and improve on the challenges.

• How will we respond when some students do not learn it?

• How will we extend the learning for students who have demonstrated proficiency?

Figure 1.1: The six components of the Student Wellness Education Framework.

Professional Learning Communities at Work

A PLC is “an ongoing process in which educators work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the students they serve” (DuFour et al., 2024, p. 14). It relies on three big ideas and four critical questions.

THREE BIG IDEAS

The three big ideas that drive the PLC process are (DuFour et al., 2024):

1. A focus on learning

2. A collaborative culture and collective responsibility

3. A results orientation

It is imperative that collaborative teams have a solid understanding and working definitions of these three big ideas so that they will be able to successfully engage in the work of the Student Wellness Framework.

In an effective PLC, there is no obscurity regarding the school or district’s commitment to learning for every student. Effective educators on high-performing teams are dedicated to clearly defining learning objectives for each student, consistently assessing and tracking their progress, and promptly providing necessary interventions to ensure all students achieve the desired outcomes.

A collaborative culture and collective responsibility are foundational to a successful PLC. In a PLC, no educator or staff member works in isolation. All adults work collaboratively and share collective responsibility for the educational progress of every student.

In a PLC, a results orientation requires evidence-based learning—integrating findings from data-informed practices to determine instructional decisions with the aim of enhancing student outcomes. By relying on more than altruism, educators can more effectively address equitable and inclusive learning and improve the overall quality of education. They use data and evidence to continuously refine and adapt teaching techniques for optimal student achievement.

FOUR CRITICAL QUESTIONS

Assuming the three big ideas of a PLC are successfully embedded into the culture, the four critical questions help guide the implementation of the Student Wellness Framework. Wendy Custable and Paul C. Farmer (2020) emphasize the importance of incorporating both the four critical questions and the three big ideas of a PLC to successfully engage in this work. Richard DuFour and colleagues (2024) identify the four critical questions as follows.

1. What do we want all students to know and be able to do?

2. How will we know if they’ve learned it?

3. How will we respond when some students do not learn?

4. How will we extend the learning for students who are already proficient?

The first critical question emphasizes the importance of team consensus on the learning objectives for a class. A team that is utilizing the Student Wellness Framework may consider the following questions to initially guide their work toward building consensus.

• What are the essential standards, learning targets, and wellness competencies all students will learn in this course?

• How will we organize the content curriculum to ensure a cohesive and unified instructional effort while integrating wellness?

• How will we determine and implement key wellness decisions? What action steps will we take?

The second critical question pertains to feedback and assessment. As Custable and Farmer (2020) mention, in a highly functioning PLC, teams should be providing assessments that are “short, frequent, and part of the instructional process” (p. 23). Ideally, teams will create these assessments with established consensus on standards, assessment criteria, procedures, and competency levels. The Management Center (2021) suggests using SMARTIE goals— or student learning goals that are strategic, measurable, achievable, realistic, time bound, inclusive, and equitable—to form the foundation of all assessments. Teams should regularly be asking themselves, “What common formative assessments should we use to assess students’ growth in wellness competencies?”

The third critical question requires teams to plan for what they will do when some students are unable to learn the standards or skills that are required of them. When education teams plan ahead and utilize systematic interventions when students are struggling to meet standards, educators can ensure they provide equitable help early and often. In Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work, Fourth Edition, Richard DuFour and colleagues (2024) state that a school that effectively develops systematic interventions has a comprehensive plan to support students facing challenges by offering them additional time and learning assistance that is timely, targeted, and organized.

The fourth and final critical question guarantees that schools give equal priority to students who are proficient as to those who are struggling. A team that is utilizing the Student Wellness Framework may consider the following questions to initially guide this work.

• What steps will we implement to ensure that students who are proficient and meeting expectations remain engaged and continue to make progress?

• How will we organize the curriculum to ensure a cohesive and unified instructional effort for students who are meeting expectations?

• How will we determine and implement key wellness decisions regarding proficient students?

The Last Word

Student wellness consists of multiple forces and the collective importance of individual, school, and home wellness. The Student Wellness Framework fosters student wellness by integrating teaching of the five core competencies of student wellness and embedding

these competencies throughout the school environment. Integrating the multiple forces of student wellness by amplifying the key concepts of a PLC and addressing the four critical questions ensures a comprehensive approach to student wellness and achievement. This framework provides schools with a strong foundation to sustain their PLC efforts, thereby guaranteeing the effective implementation of strategies that ensure every student’s success extends well beyond the classroom.

Diving In: Create a Culture of Wellness

Use the following checklist as a guide to start creating a comprehensive culture of student wellness in your PLC.

If your school defines success only through academic achievement, consider what approaches to change as a first step.

Explore how teams will utilize the four critical questions to lead their wellness work using the “Four Critical Questions in the Student Wellness Education Framework” tool on page 20.

Have teams explore which of the five core competencies they would prefer to start examining using the “Emotional Competency Reflection for Educators” tool on page 22.

Identify teams that might be resistant to embedding wellness competencies into their course. What inroads may exist to support their consent in beginning this process?

When teams feel prepared, begin to have them share their successes and challenges with other teams and administrators to help continue the PLC process.

Four Critical Questions in the Student Wellness Education Framework

Explore how your team will utilize the four critical questions to lead your wellness work by answering the following questions.

Four Critical Questions of a PLC

What do we want all students to know and be able to do?

The Student Wellness Framework

What are the essential standards, learning targets, and wellness competencies that all students will learn in this course?

How will we organize the curriculum to ensure a cohesive and unified instructional effort while integrating wellness?

How will we determine and implement key wellness decisions? What action steps will we take?

How will we know if they’ve learned it?

What common formative assessments should we use to assess students’ growth in wellness competencies?

page 1 of 2

How will we respond when some students do not learn?

What comprehensive plan will we have in place for students who are not meeting expectations?

How will we extend the learning for students who are already proficient?

What strategies will we put in place to keep students who are proficient in their wellness competencies engaged and to support their continued progress?

How will we organize the curriculum to ensure a cohesive and unified instructional effort for students who are meeting expectations?

How will we determine and implement key wellness decisions regarding proficient students? page 2 of 2

Emotional Competency Reflection for Educators

Use this tool to reflect on the social-emotional skills and competencies that your teachers and colleagues are developing in their workspaces.

Social-Emotional Skills and Competencies Reflections

Emotional Skills

Which core competency would you like your students to have?

Leadership Modeling

How are you modeling these skills to your colleagues?

Educator Modeling

How are teachers and leaders modeling these skills to your students?

Explicit Instruction

What strategies are you using to teach these skills and have your students practice them?

Time for Practice

How and when will educators deliberately practice these skills?

Striving for Balance

Do your responses in the previous four rows show balance? Where should your school be paying more attention?

Source: Panorama Education, 2023.

Resilient

“The authors—all respected leaders in Adlai E. Stevenson High School District 125, the birthplace of the PLC at Work process—have written a comprehensive guide that moves student wellness from just ‘one more thing to teach’ to where it belongs at the center of a comprehensive framework of student support. The proven framework they present has the tools and strategies educators need to ensure all students develop the wellness skills necessary for success in school and beyond.”

—Tom Hierck

Author and Educational Consultant

Student well-being has a tremendous impact on a school’s atmosphere and culture. Many educators, however, do not know how to support student needs beyond academics. In Resilient: A Framework for Student Wellness Education in a PLC at Work ®, authors Laurie Feinzimer, Troy Gobble, Mark Onuscheck, Anthony R. Reibel, and Eric Twadell present the Student Wellness Framework, an effective way for school leaders, curriculum coordinators, and instructional coaches to help teachers encourage student wellbeing in classroom practices and curriculum design. Founded on six integral components, the framework presents tools, considerations, and strategies for fostering more productive teacher-student collaborations and actively honing students’ social-emotional capacities. Once they’re equipped with this framework, readers will make their classrooms more responsive to students’ needs and champion student wellness as part of academic routines.

Readers will:

• Create responsive classrooms that encourage social, emotional, and academic growth

• Use students’ perspectives to inform and improve teaching practices

• Integrate aspects of social-emotional growth and wellness into daily academic learning

• Build stronger rapports with students through honest assessment and feedback

• Encourage students’ continued growth through increasing levels of engaging challenge